Does park hopping really wipe you out?

[djc9699]

We park hop every trip, but not necessarily every day. We go for a minimum of 10 days every trip. We drive 1100 miles so not worth it for a short trip. Anyway, we typically rope drop a park, have a late breakfast and then use FP for that park between 11ish and 2:00ish. We then decide what to do depending on FP availability. RNR available? Lets go to Hollywood. Everest? Lets hit AK. Tired? lets go swim or nap. We do plan a few afternoons for Epcot WS and an evening for Fantasmic and the Frozen desert party. Mostly hopping allows us flexibility to just go where we want. It also allows us to eat dinner where we want (mostly in Epcot) while still getting FPs that we want earlier in the day.

 

[DisneyJen0504]

We always hop! Stay onsite, rope drop until after lunch, back to resort for a break with the kids, sometimes pool, sometimes just playing in the room and we chill on the balcony. Then we prefer to go back out to a different park around 4-5pm for dinner and touring the evening. Not our style to stay in one park all day. We need a break from the touring and excitement! Love to head back out at night feeling refreshed!

 

[ZephyrHawk]

Disney wipes me out. I don't think park hopping is any more tiring. Some days we do it, some days we don't.

 

[cinnaminny]

The thing giving me the most pause is FOP at 3:25 in AK, and a BOG ADR at 6:15 in MK, for Wednesday which is the ONLY non party night of our stay. The night before we will be doing the party which wasn't originally factored into my plans. So Tuesday night - late night; Wednesday AK ending with FOP around 3:30; dinner at MK and maybe staying for fireworks. In my mind i'm also thinking AK = exhausting. Everything is so spread out. And will FOP make us nauseous and not able to enjoy the BOG dinner? I wouldn't be as concerned if I could have gotten FOP for just a little earlier in the day so we'd have time to reset before dinner. Or maybe I should have put DHS on Wednesday which I think is less exhausting, right? But it's too late to switch now.

We park hopped but we also had a car on our trip. Your time is pretty close, but I would think that would be doable still even if you were just using Disney transportation. I would try to do the FOP 5 min early though...Maybe if you wanted to get back to your resort for a break, you could uber one?

 

[HopperFan]

We got park hopper tickets for the first time for our upcoming trip. I was hoping this would make the trip less crazy, giving more flexibility less stress to max out each park each day. But in my scramble to reserve what we want, our plans are all over the place. Everything is doable, but it means park hopping for dinners and shows, and some later than preferred FP times that we will need to do right before leaving the park and hopping to another for dinner. (I'll try to modify them earlier but of course no guarantee.) I just hope I am not setting us up to be running around like crazy. We are not planning to rope drop anything so the mornings will be relaxing. How is the transportation between parks? Does park hopping or one-park-per-day tend to wipe you out more?

The only time park hopping wipes us out is if it is hot and we feel beat down. It actually has nothing to do with the hopping and more to do with us. The hop itself is a bit of rest time and actually entering a new park can be revitalizing than continuing for long hours at one park.

BUT it is all about how you plan it, how many hours you do, how you normally eat, do you need rest time, do you rope drop, do you close parks ........... hop or not hop can be widely different based on prep and personality.

 

[Silvermist999]

After many trips getting park hoppers, we thought we could save some money so we didn't get them. Big mistake.

We always go back to the resort to rest or swim and often times our mood changes, we decide we want to head to another park to see a show or fireworks etc. Well without park hoppers we couldn't. Also if we didn't have park hoppers and only had one day planned for one park, if the evening parade or show got cancelled due to weather, then we would miss out, there would be no chance to go back to that park to see it. We always get park hoppers now, we love and need the flexibility it gives us.

 

[noblemaidenfair]

The thing giving me the most pause is FOP at 3:25 in AK, and a BOG ADR at 6:15 in MK, for Wednesday which is the ONLY non party night of our stay. The night before we will be doing the party which wasn't originally factored into my plans. So Tuesday night - late night; Wednesday AK ending with FOP around 3:30; dinner at MK and maybe staying for fireworks. In my mind i'm also thinking AK = exhausting. Everything is so spread out. And will FOP make us nauseous and not able to enjoy the BOG dinner? I wouldn't be as concerned if I could have gotten FOP for just a little earlier in the day so we'd have time to reset before dinner. Or maybe I should have put DHS on Wednesday which I think is less exhausting, right? But it's too late to switch now.

I think you'll be fine, and even if you're rushed to get to BOG, you'll relax once you get there. Look at it this way - you got two hard to get FP/reservations for two things you really want to do - you'll work it out

We always park hop, because while I plan the FP's (as early in the day as possible so I can get more later) and meals (after 6), outside of those I don't necessarily like to be tied to an agenda. If the weather is bad, I'd give up Epcot and go to MK, for example. All in all, the flexibility of park hopping is much more relaxing for my family.

 

[noblemaidenfair]

After many trips getting park hoppers, we thought we could save some money so we didn't get them. Big mistake.

We always go back to the resort to rest or swim and often times our mood changes, we decide we want to head to another park to see a show or fireworks etc. Well without park hoppers we couldn't. Also if we didn't have park hoppers and only had one day planned for one park, if the evening parade or show got cancelled due to weather, then we would miss out, there would be no chance to go back to that park to see it. We always get park hoppers now, we love and need the flexibility it gives us.

100%! Not having PH's would stress me out for this exact reason!

 

[Flamingeaux]

I am in the camp that park hopping is a waste of time, energy and money. Just stay at the one park all day. That said guess who is going to do all four parks in one day on their next trip... We will have hoppers because we have FD so what the heck.

 

[GillianP1301]

We always hop and I find those hops actually are like little breaks for me. We generally drive between parks (there are a few exceptions), so it's not overly time consuming and it's a good chance to be off our feet and in A/C while we drive between. I tend to plan our days with the most flexibility for the park we're hopping to. Generally we start with an early breakfast ADR, book our fastpasses in our first park for late morning/early afternoon and then we decide to either hop parks or sometimes we decide to go back to the resort for a swim. If we have a dinner ADR at another park, that decides where we are going, if we don't then I usually pre-plan where I think we want to go, but can easily change that on the fly if the mood calls for it. We do 10 park days in a row and I doubt I could ever do 1 park from start to finish every day, it would be too much. I like to space things out and break them up - I find that far more relaxing.

 

[kiford]

We always park hop. I try, where possible, to book dinner ADRs that are in or close to a park I sort-of intend to be at in the afternoon although I'm perfectly willing to take whatever bus there is that comes along. We do tend to go with the flow a bit and do what we feel like rather than actually planning something. We don't mind taking the bus or other transportation because: (a) it's air conditioned; and (b) we get to sit for a bit (sometimes you have to stand if it's end of day and everyone is leaving, but if it's in the middle of the day, that isn't usually a problem). So the transportation is actually factored into the park hopping experience. Normally we try not to do more than two parks per day but sometimes it might end up being three if we have a late ADR in a park after park hopping to two others.

We are not rope droppers, we eat TS for breakfast and dinner - both late-ish - so it's reasonably easy to plan one park/area for breakfast time and one for dinner time and not have to worry about anything for lunch. We don't normally eat lunch; if we're really hungry we'll just grab a snack or something so we generally have no bookings to worry about in the middle of the day. Sometimes that will mean that we head back to the hotel and relax or go to the pool.

Having said that - this year we are going over the Christmas holidays (we usually go earlier in the month when it's not so busy) so we'll have to modify our normal method of touring. We'll still have park hoppers especially since we may need to relocate from a park that's getting too busy to one that isn't but we'll also have to do some RD days (ugh) which actually may increase our park hopping although the transportation may be busier; I guess we'll see.

 

[kimmyg26]

No, it actually helps us feel more rested. We are rope droppers. We will stay in the park until 1pm2pm, head back to the resort, rest, swim, etc and then new park in the evening.

 

[gulliesmom]

Park hopping only wipes you out if you plan it that way. We're not rope droppers either. We're also not planners. We have our 3 pre-planned FP+, but that's it. Even those get changed the morning we're supposed to use them fairly often. Then, we use park hopping more spur of the moment than planned. If we want to go somewhere else, we do. If we're tired and we're done, we don't hop. Sometimes we'll go back to the condo and chill then hop. But if you have plans all over the place all day, yes, I can see where that would make you tired.

Can't comment on transportation between the parks. We have our car with us, so transportation is awesome.

This is us exactly, minus having our own car. We added PH for the first time this trip and I am planning on using them exactly as stated above. I wanted the flexibility to hop, or even for example to go into World Showcase to grab dinner one night, etc. I doubt we will actually go to two or more parks every day we are there, but I wanted the option.

 

[GreatLakes]

Not at all. I don't rush from ride to ride and spend a lot of time just enjoying the atmosphere and people watching when I'm at Disney. I'll use park hopping to split up a day her or there or just head over to a park to do one or two rides very casually and then leave. In a lot of ways the days I hop around are less stressful then the days I do one park because it forces me to leave for a bit even if it is just travel time.

 

[Kristin0713]

Thanks for all the helpful replies!! We are staying at GF, so I think we could reasonably take a bus back to GF after the 3:25 FOP ride, then hop on the monorail and get to MK quickly for dinner.

Now the only thing I'm wondering is if FOP will make me sick and if I should take medicine before going on it. I don't want to feel ill for a dinner at BOG, but I also don't want to be too tired from dramamine! I guess that's a question for another thread.

 

[aml3679]

This question depends on a lot of things. My husband is 60 and I am 57 and we tire out easily. The first time we went to WDW, we wanted to do it all. We went in December, which is supposed to be the least crowded - wrong! We went all day long. It was crowded and hot and we wore out easily. We are now Florida residents and have Silver Passes which means June and July are blacked out along with major holidays. Our new strategy is to get up early, which we do anyway, eat breakfast and then go until lunch time. Go back to our resort and take a nap and maybe swim in the pool. Then head out again later in the day.

 

[mousefan73]

Disney is almost making it a must to get PHers.. when I look at our trip a few weeks ago. How many night did MK close early because of a Party? Too many IMO We prefer 2 MK days to 1 other park day... so to get our 4 MKs days in and enjoy the others we almost HAD to combine MK with an other park.

also we stay at BC and so IMO neccesary... One day while doing laundry I dashed over to Japan I as forget to buy a cup I had thought I had bought the night before.. I figure the distance from the laundry to my room was the same LOL..

Walked over in my swim cover up.. felt kinda special like Hey I can just wallk on over here to grab something. and it wasnt a ticket or time investment.

 

[DisneyOma]

We got park hopper tickets for the first time for our upcoming trip. I was hoping this would make the trip less crazy, giving more flexibility less stress to max out each park each day. But in my scramble to reserve what we want, our plans are all over the place. Everything is doable, but it means park hopping for dinners and shows, and some later than preferred FP times that we will need to do right before leaving the park and hopping to another for dinner. (I'll try to modify them earlier but of course no guarantee.) I just hope I am not setting us up to be running around like crazy. We are not planning to rope drop anything so the mornings will be relaxing. How is the transportation between parks? Does park hopping or one-park-per-day tend to wipe you out more?

It's going to be really hard, IMO, to max out each park if you don't do mornings. I think that would add stress not to rope drop. You can get 2-3 headliners out of the way with rope drop, more if you do morning EMH. Then take a relaxing break and park hop when it starts to get crowded (when the mornings will be relaxing' people show up) or have your FP+ scheduled for that time.

The thing giving me the most pause is FOP at 3:25 in AK, and a BOG ADR at 6:15 in MK, for Wednesday which is the ONLY non party night of our stay. The night before we will be doing the party which wasn't originally factored into my plans. So Tuesday night - late night; Wednesday AK ending with FOP around 3:30; dinner at MK and maybe staying for fireworks. In my mind i'm also thinking AK = exhausting. Everything is so spread out. And will FOP make us nauseous and not able to enjoy the BOG dinner? I wouldn't be as concerned if I could have gotten FOP for just a little earlier in the day so we'd have time to reset before dinner. Or maybe I should have put DHS on Wednesday which I think is less exhausting, right? But it's too late to switch now.

Are there some medical concerns with the group you are going with? If it's just stamina, start getting a little more in shape each day before your trip, perhaps?

 

[Kristin0713]

It's going to be really hard, IMO, to max out each park if you don't do mornings. I think that would add stress not to rope drop. You can get 2-3 headliners out of the way with rope drop, more if you do morning EMH. Then take a relaxing break and park hop when it starts to get crowded (when the mornings will be relaxing' people show up) or have your FP+ scheduled for that time.

We will do mornings, just not the crack of dawn the morning after MVMCP and possibly not the next day if we stay late for HEA after our BOG dinner. Otherwise, we will get up, have breakfast and be out the door fairly early--not 7am but likely between 8-9 each morning.

Are there some medical concerns with the group you are going with? If it's just stamina, start getting a little more in shape each day before your trip, perhaps?

We do have some medical concerns, the one that I think will impact us most this trip is that my DH is still recovering from a torn achilles and surgery. He won't be able to book it across the park like when we raced to Jedi training a few years ago but that's ok, he'll be fine to walk.

We already do have the park hopper so I'm just trying to plan my days out within the context of our priority ADR's (BOG and HBD/F!) and our high priority FP's, all while not going crazy but making the most of our trip, too!

 

[tinkerbellybutton]

Our hopping is almost always done after a pool break back at our resort. So it's no more tiring that going back the the same park after our break. I typically plan our first FP's for the first park we visit that day, then I book a FP for whatever park we plan to hop to either on the bus back to our resort for our midday break, or while at the pool. Sometimes our ADR is for lunch and we just wing it in the evenings, or the ADR is either at a resort and we have dinner before heading back to a park, or its a 7-8 pm ADR and we are back in a park with plenty of time to make it.

We also often park hop at the very end of the day if one park closes early and another park closes late or has EMH. We have often ended a night watching Fantasmic or Illuminations then on our way out the park we see the MK bus and hop there until MK closes. We sort of catch our second wind when we see the bus! I've never felt that our hopping has wiped us out, but we take nice long midday breaks back at our resort daily so that definitely helps.